Wall insulation in Sopley
In a terrace only two walls take the weather, so the gable end and the party wall junction decide where the work is worth doing.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Close to half the homes in this parish are terraced, and a terrace changes a wall job in one particular way. Your outside walls stop at the party wall, and anything blown into a shared cavity becomes your neighbour's business as much as yours.
The usual calls: a gable end cold because it is the only wall taking any weather, a middle terrace with one chilly room nobody can account for, or two neighbours who want the fill done together and need it priced that way.
Looking comes first. One small hole drilled in a mortar joint with a borescope through it, moisture readings on the inside face, and a walk round to work out which elevation catches the wind coming up the valley. A free written itemised quote follows, keeping the survey, the system, the junctions and the making good on lines of their own.
The work
Terraces, gables and the wall you share
Standing at the front, then again at the back. On a mid terrace these are the only two elevations taking weather, so the whole calculation shifts. What they are made of still has to be established: rendered over, a nine inch solid wall and an early brick and block cavity look the same. The scope settles it in minutes. Gap or none, what width, clean or fouled, dry or wet, and whether anything has already been put in there.
Standing at the gable, if the house has one. An end of terrace is a different building altogether. The gable is a large uninterrupted wall, weather on it, usually no openings to break it up, and it is where a fill or an external system earns its keep quickest. Where the cavity is clear, dry and wide enough it gets filled from outside through drilled holes made good in matching mortar. On an exposed gable that means bonded polystyrene bead, which travels to the corners and stays there. Blown mineral wool is the older answer and holds up perfectly well on a sheltered face.
Standing at the party wall, on the outside. Fill travels. Unless the drilling pattern is set to the party wall line, material carries on into the cavity next door and neither household ends up with what was quoted. Drilling into a shared wall, or cutting a chase in one, brings the Party Wall etc. Act into play, and where it does not, common sense still says the neighbour hears about it first.
Standing at the party wall, on the inside. Line the front and back of a room and stop dead at the shared wall, and that corner becomes the coldest surface in the room. Mould finds it inside a winter. So the lining returns a short distance along the party wall instead of finishing square.
Standing in the room itself. Internal wall insulation suits a solid wall and any cavity we will not fill: insulated plasterboard bonded on, or batten and stud carrying mineral wool or PIR, boarded and skimmed afterwards. Celotex and Kingspan give more for the depth used; aerogel board suits a narrow cottage room with none to spare. Reveals, threshold, floor junction and joist ends all get wrapped, because heat in a lined room leaves at the edges.
Standing back on the pavement. External wall insulation is board on the outer face, a render carrier and a thin coat over it, and it takes the thermal bridge off eaves and corners in one pass. It also changes how the terrace looks, so in a village under a conservation area designation it starts with an application. Reveals thicken and rainwater goods move out with the wall.
Back at the drilled hole. Fill that has slumped leaves a cold band at the head of the wall; a wet one carries penetrating damp inside with black mould behind it. Both read off the borescope and extraction comes first. Then the air: trickle vents, a working extract fan, air bricks kept clear. Insulating moves the dew point and takes the draughts away, so a taped vapour control layer and breathable materials keep interstitial condensation out of the build up.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
Same team from first visit to last, one person to ring, and no sub-contracting your work out to somebody you have never met. The quote is itemised, not a figure on the back of a card: the survey and any borescope check, the system and its thickness, making good around windows and doors, ventilation works, and disposal on separate lines, so you can compare it properly against anyone else's.
Nothing is left open or unusable overnight. The site is swept at the end of each day rather than the end of the job, and what comes out leaves with us. If something turns up once we start that nobody could have seen, you get a photograph and a price before we carry on.
Lining the inside of a wall is not development and needs no application, which Planning Portal guidance on insulation confirms. The outside face is a different matter here, because the village has its own conservation area inside the National Park, appearance is controlled and the National Park property map will show you whether an address falls in it. the National Park's heritage pages is the wider heritage guidance. It is notifiable work either way: regulation 23 means a renovated thermal element has to reach the Part L standard in Approved Document L, and building control take the U value and the ventilation together.
Cost
What decides the price of a wall insulation job
No rate per square metre, because the wall area is the easy part; what happens at every window, door and floor junction is not.
Getting to it. A mid terrace with front and back only, an end of terrace with a full gable and a detached cottage on the lane are three different jobs before a hole is drilled. Cavity fill is drilled from outside and a bungalow comes off a tower where a three storey gable wants a scaffold. Internal lining is worked room by room from inside, so it is your rooms rather than a platform that gets disrupted. The work at height rules still set the platform.
Which wall you actually have. A cavity that is clear and dry can be filled in a day. A solid wall cannot be filled at all, and has to be lined inside or insulated outside, which is a different job at a different price. A borescope through one drilled hole settles it, and no honest quote is written before that.
The junctions, not the field of the wall. Reveals at windows and doors, the floor junction, the eaves and any party wall are where heat escapes and where condensation shows up if the detailing is wrong. That work is slow, it is most of the labour, and it is the first thing a cheap quote leaves out.
Comparing quotes? Ask whether the wall has actually been checked with a borescope or just assumed, what system and what thickness is specified, how the reveals and floor junction are being detailed, whether ventilation is being addressed, and who makes good the plaster and decoration afterwards. Two quotes for the same job are usually two different jobs.
If damp has appeared
Damp or mould after a wall was insulated
Ring rather than use the form. Damp patches or black mould appearing on an outside wall after cavity fill or internal lining usually means water is tracking across the cavity, or warm air is reaching a cold surface at a junction. We look before we take anything out, because the fix depends on which of those it is. It is about six miles from us, so a BH23 address out here is normally seen within a day or two. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
In a terrace the wall you share is the one to think about
A party wall is normally the one outside face neither household has to heat against, and that is a genuine advantage. A mid terrace loses heat through two walls where a detached house loses it through four.
What it also does is complicate the work. Cavity fill travels, and unless the installer stops it at the party wall line the material runs on into the neighbouring cavity. That is somebody else's wall, somebody else's cavity barrier and, if it goes wrong, somebody else's damp patch. So on a terrace the drilling pattern is set to the line, the neighbour is told what is happening whether or not the Act formally demands it, and where two owners want the job done together we quote it as one piece of work with the split shown openly.
The internal version of the same detail is the one people miss. Insulation that stops square at the shared wall leaves the coldest surface in the room sitting right in the corner, and mould finds it inside a winter. A short return of insulation along the party wall is what prevents that.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Sopley, the Ripley and Bransgore side and the BH23 addresses along the Avon valley, with the New Forest National Park Authority for planning. You are dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building, the trading name of Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, which you can look up in a minute. Thomas Hannen's business, and he is the one who comes out to price the job, not a salesman. A verified customer's 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The visit and the written quote are both free.
Questions
Sopley questions we get asked
Does my neighbour have to agree before the cavity is filled?
They should be told in every case, and where the work touches the shared wall the Act formally applies. Fill travels, so a job done without a word next door is a job storing up an argument.
Is an end of terrace worth more insulation than a middle one?
Generally yes. The gable is a large uninterrupted wall with weather on it, and it will often be losing more than the front and the back put together.
What happens where new lining meets the party wall?
It returns a short way along the shared wall rather than finishing square. Left square, that corner is the coldest surface in the room, and mould gets to it quickly.
Can two neighbours have the work done at the same time?
It is the sensible way round. We price it as a single job with the split shown, since the access and the making good are shared across both quotes.
The village is in a conservation area. What does that rule out?
The outside face, without an application, because appearance is what the designation controls. Dry lining on the inside is unaffected unless the building itself carries a listed entry.
Nearby, and next door
Wall insulation near Sopley
Wall insulation nearby
Our other trades in Sopley
Everything we do in Christchurch Wall insulation, all areas Every area we cover
Free quote
Get the gable and the party wall looked at properly
Thomas comes out, scopes the cavity, works out where the heat is going and prices it in writing. The visit and the quote are free.